Story by Brock Ormond
The Wellington Dukes made it three wins in a row with a 7-1 thrashing of the Markham Royals on Friday night.
The Dukes got the Lehigh Arena crowd buzzing early with goals off the sticks of Evan Erwin and Liam Campbell.
Wellington then got fancy to up its lead to 3-0 in the second, pulling off a ‘fake Michigan’ style goal with Campbell pretending to scoop the puck up and put it up high to throw off the Royals but subtly slid the puck to the side of the net for Landon Marleau to tap in for his 19th of the season.
That fuelled the Dukes to a three-goal frame overall, with Zack Carrier wiring home his 24th of the season from his knees to chase Royals goalie Noah Caballero from the net and Cooper Woron relieving some heavy Markham pressure by capturing an aerial pass from Kyle Grasby and scoring off the rush for his first as a Duke.
The Dukes tacked on two more within 34 seconds through Carrier and Grasby to cap off three-point performances before Andrew Pacheco got his stick on a long shot to break Royden Smith’s shutout in the late goings.
The Dukes outshot Markham 34-32, with Smith making 31 saves to increase the team’s record to 20-13-3-5 and 48 points.
Wellington heads on the road to Stouffville for a 7:30 matchup with the high-flying Spirit in the middle game of their three-game weekend on Saturday night.
